Travinia Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar Lexington — Restaurant in Lexington

Arrived at 6:30pm on Sunday for dinner. My wife and I opted to sit at the bar for our meal. The bartender greeted us by stating "our fryer is broken, so we can't do anything fried". We then attempted to order the meatball appetizer to which he replied "we're out of meatballs". Okay - back to the drawing board, although it was kind of weird he didn't mention that like he did the fryer. Our next attempt was to order a flatbread as our appetizer. From that moment, the bartender never checked on us again, as we waited for almost an entire hour until our flatbread finally arrived. Keep in mind, we made it clear we were ordering an appetizer and we still had our menus, but had not been asked about ordering entrees or providing us with an update on the appetizer.

Additionally, we found it curious that bread was being taken to the tables and some others at the bar, but not us. While we waited for the flat bread to arrive, we also heard the bartender state to other patrons they were out of a red wine blend and when another attempted to order the ribeye, they informed the customer they were out of that too. Wow - sure are out of a lot of things.

Back to the flat bread - it was okay, but we were STARVING by this point -- remember it's been an hour since we arrived. The bartender didn't acknowledge the wait and still asked us nothing about ordering more food. We debated just leaving, but ultimately we were excited to try their food, as it was our first time. I finally flagged the bartender down and asked if we could order our meals. My wife ordered the chicken parm, to which he replied "ooooh, that's fried...we can't make that". Now, I know you may be thinking "he already told you the fryer was down", and that's true. BUT - I've never heard of an Italian restaurant deep frying chicken parm. It's almost exclusively pan fried and finished in the oven. With that said, we took this as our final sign to close out our tab and move on with our lives. When the bartender came back with our check he said "don't let this experience deter you from coming back", again with no apology. I pushed back saying "we waited an hour for this flat bread and you ignored us the whole time". He replied stating something about their assistant GM being let go and they were really short staffed in the kitchen (said only three people were back there), but honestly that isn't anyone's problem. Ironically, their kitchen is visible from the bar and I had commented to my wife "wow they have a lot of people working in the kitchen" before he made that comment, so I found it a bit humorous.

Anyway, the food here could be good - I didn't get a chance to find out - but I can tell you that the bartender provided abysmal customer service and was an awful multi tasker. Management clearly needs to improve, re-train the staff, and focus on providing a great...

I am loathe to give 2 stars but the Server tried her best! Last night 7 of us went back since being there over a year ago. It was our friend's birthday and she wanted to try it again since her first choice was closed on Mondays. We arrived at 630 and we're promptly showed to our table (funny it was the same table we sat at over a year ago...was this foreshadowing another night of a horrible waiting time and mediocre food? Hmmm). The place was not full, but I would say about 60% occupied. Waitress came and took drink orders. She was great. She also brought lots of bread and kept coming back to check on us. We did not order appetizers...went right for the main courses. Now the wait! After 3 of our pals had their 3rd alcoholic drink, and continued excuses from the sweet waitress, we asked for the manager. It was at least 45 minutes since we ordered. A guy comes over, never tells us his name, and immediately looks at me and says, "I know you! I remember you". I said, "Not unless you remember us from over a year ago and we had a horrible wait time like tonight!". He then mumbled a few things about 2 people calling in for the night and we would be getting our food soon. Then he literally, turned and quickly walked away to the kitchen! We we sitting close to the kitchen and we figured the manager heard us after he left! He came back and said he would buy us dessert (lol had not had dinner...). We told him we had dessert waiting back at our friend's house. He then said he would get us another round of drinks. Hubby and I said we were drinking water....he never came back with any water and eventually the waitress came back with the alcohol. The food finally came about 20 minutes after the manager came to our table! We lived in Italy for four years. Chicken Marsala is made with thin pounded out chicken. Mine was thick (with some tough edges). To make sure I knew I had "real" mashed potatoes there were hard chunks in the blob of potatoes. The sauce looked like brown gravy, but when I tasted it the flavor was okay. Hubby had the fettuccine special. As he said, "I have never had Fettuccine Alfredo with so many "strange" added ingredients. I think the chef was trying to add everything he/she had leftover in the kitchen. The waitress kept apologizing and was as sweet as could be. She was polite to me when I commented to her, "I see that table is having issues as well!" (Across from us a couple had the manager at their table and the guests were going on and on!).

We finally left and all 7 of us agreed that we would never be...

I have visited and supported Travinia both professionally for catering and personally for dinners events and hosted even private events at their location but I was extremely disappointed in my experience today. Over the past year I have had multiple not great experiences but nothing worth making a big deal over however today I was really stumped and quite disappointed. Our servers name was Carl very nice guy. Three menu items on the menu no longer supported……ok kinda disappointing however the real issue came when we were sitting mind you along the kitchen wall so towards the back. The business guest I brought was quite cold and I was as well. We noticed several people putting on jackets and even one guest who went out to the car to get jackets so we finally spoke up asking could they turn the heat up. It was the response that we got that really disappointed us. First it was it’s locked and I don’t have access to it. Mind you the thermostat he points out is right behind us…..reading 65-66 degrees it kept adjusting between the two. I asked could he please get a manager to address which his response was “I can try but not sure they have a key….” I asked to speak to the manager which never came out or came to the table. Our server returned stating the manager didn’t have a key and he was sorry but it was from the door opening and closing. Mind you there was about 8 tables seated in the whole restaurant. We were quite aways away from the doors. No one was opening and closing doors constantly. It really is unacceptable to keep a restaurant set to 66 degrees and expect guests to be comfortable enough to enjoy their meals in the dead of winter….. but even if you don’t have a key and someone requests a manager have the decency to show face to the table to discuss. I ordered a coffee for my business guest in an attempt to keep her warm and us finish our meeting, which he charged us for which at least he could have offered to comp considering I said to him can she get a cup of coffee to warm her up….. the server was attentive and I don’t blame him for the menu issues nor the heat problems however the manager clearly doesn’t care about his guests. Has the service industry really gotten this bad that guest concerns are really not a concern? If so then Travinia might be the perfect restaurant for you! It will be highly considered as not a choice next business lunch I take out and certainly not a choice for future endeavors...